Sam Marchetti - Cross Border Collaboration Masterclass

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Jane Lambert

I first mentioned the Menai Science Park in M-SParc - Anglesey's Science Park on 29 Aug 2018 and have followed its progress ever since. Over lockdown, the park's Enterprise Hub has presented some excellent webinars.  Today's Cross Border Collaboration Masterclass by Sam Marchetti was one of the best.

Sam is founder of Consortia Co which assists businesses to bid for work from the public and private sectors.  He began his talk by asking each of us what we did for a living,  There were about 10 of us at one point and we ranged from a senior innovation manager at Bangor University to a student. Sam described the student as the most fortunate of us because his options were unlimited.

Having ascertained his audience he angled his presentation to meet our priorities.   Using animated slides one of which reminded me of the infinity sign he sketched out the market for tenders.   The private sector was in the left-hand loop and the public sector was in the right.   

Many startups waited until opportunities arose and then tried to bid for them.   A better practice would be to anticipate likely demand.  The starting point is to identify the supplier's strengths and then, if and insofar as there are weaknesses, potential collaborators with complementary strengths.   The key to success was research from all kinds of sources including the procurer's social media accounts,   The information should be used to design (and refine the design of) a minimum viable product. 

As Sam's business is based in Cork and Dublin, he concentrated on supplying the Irish government and business.  While he acknowledged differences in practice in the UK and Welsh public services he stressed that his model would work anywhere.  He added that Irish business and the public sector were still happy to collaborate with Welsh and other British partners despite brexit and our government's negotiating tactics in the new relationship talks.

For this webinar, the Hub used Google Meet (formerly hangouts) which provided a much better connection than Zoom in last month's Online Pitch Perfect.   Having said that, there was a much smaller audience and probably less traffic over the internet at 09:30 this morning.

Although the focus is on matters affecting Northwest Wales, many of the topics discussed in these webinars are of interest to businesses in the rest of the UK and beyond.   Particulars of past and future events can be found on the Hub's Eventbrite page.   

Anyone wishing to discuss this article or any of the topics mentioned in it should call me during office hours on +44 (0)20 7404 5252  or send me a message through my contact form.